Scarface

Video clip shows an elementary school stage production of 'Scarface'?

Claim: Video clip shows an elementary school stage production of Scarface.

FALSE

Example:[Collected via e-mail, March 2010]

This is a kids school play with some very adult themes. Is this for real?

Origins: This video clip purportedly showing school kids performing a stage version of Scarface, the 1983 Brian de Palma film starring Al Pacino as drug lord Tony Montana, raised hackles on the Internet in March 2010 among parents who were horrified that an elementary school would have children performing such inappropriate material full of adult themes, violence, and foul language (even if those elements were somewhat muted in the version shown here).

However, according to various sources (such as TMZ), this video did not originate as a taped record of an elementary school play; the stage work was professionally produced and directed:

That hysterical (or horrifying) version of "Scarface" making the rounds with grade school kids playing all the parts and spewing the f-word ... "fudge" — yeah, it's not an actual school play.

Instead, it's the work of director Marc Klasfeld and Rockhard Films who did the videos for Lady Gaga's "Pokerface" and Adam Lambert's "For Your Entertainment." It was produced in L.A. within the last few weeks and the audience members were a mix of cast family members, colleagues and friends.

As for Lil' Tony and his co-stars, they were selected through a casting agent known for finding child actor look-alikes for adult stars.

And according to the Los Angeles Times:

The video was actually made [in February 2010] with professional child actors in a rented theater in Koreatown and directed by Marc Klasfeld, a veteran music video director.

With the quirky homage to "Scarface," Klasfeld said "we had a great cast, great kids and great parents ... they enjoyed the process." The director said it was amusing to watch the pockets of outrage as the purposely provocative video spread out across the Internet.

"We definitely suspected that would happen," said Klasfeld, a father of two who says he wonders why the most vocal critics of the ironic video don't speak out more against the sexualization of young girls in American culture or the relentless violence on screens of all sorts.

"Everyday when I wake up with my daughter and I turn on the television for her and we're constantly guarding her against all these unnecessary sexual [messages] bombarding her ... so for us to see the reaction against this, well, that was a little shocking," Klasfeld said. "I found it all fascinating."

Last updated: 30 March 2010

Sources:

Boucher, Geoff. "'Scarface School Play' Director Steps Forward."

Los Angeles Times 30 March 2010.

Greiner, Andrew and Lora Lesage. "'Scarface School Play' Causes Trouble for Local School."

David Mikkelson founded snopes.com in 1994, and under his guidance the company has pioneered a number of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone, the light bulb, beer pong, and a vaccine for a disease that has not yet been discovered. He is currently seeking political asylum in the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

Copy the article link

Send us your feedback

Thank you for writing to us! Although we receive hundreds of e-mails every day, we really and truly read them all, and your comments, suggestions, and questions are most welcome. Unfortunately, we can manage to answer only a small fraction of our incoming mail.

Our site covers many of the items currently being plopped into inboxes everywhere, so if you were writing to ask us about something you just received, our search engine can probably help you find the very article you want.

Choose a few key words from the item you're looking for and click here to go to the search engine.
(Searching on whole phrases will often fail to produce matches because the text of many items is quite variable, so picking out one or two key words is the best strategy.)

We do reserve the right to use non-confidential material sent to us via this form on our site, but only after it has been stripped of any information that might identify the sender or any other individuals not party to this communication.